Plantain is a tropical food crop produced in Liberia mainly in Bong, Lofa, and Nimba counties.
Several market women sell this commodity on the local market to feed themselves and pay their children’s school fees.
Some add value before selling. Most of the women involved in selling this produce in urban markets, buy it from wholesalers who bring them from rural communities.
There is a whole chain involved in the production and sale of plantain in the country. First, it is produced by local farmers.
Second, urban traders, mainly from the Monrovia and Paynesville districts, go to these rural communities and buy them from the farmers.
These urban traders, known as the “Gorbachev market women” in the Red Light area, buy the market from wholesalers from rural communities and later on resell the plantains to a group of women in Monrovia and Paynesville, on commission basis.
Madam Theresa Williams falls within the category of those women who buy and resell the plantains from the wholesalers on commission basis. She told our reporter last week that the market was getting ‘tough and ugly’ because of supply and demand issues, as well as the high cost associated with transporting the goods to Monrovia, and most importantly, she said the market is just getting overcrowded with so many resellers.
“There are lots of people who are now buying plantains from wholesalers and reselling them,” said Ms. Williams.
She told our reporter that the over crowdedness of the market has led to huge dip in her profit.
This market woman is one of several women in the Red Light, Duala, and other urban areas that run to approaching commercial vehicles that come from rural areas and ‘engage’ the goods on them-whether plantain, oil, fruits, cassava, eddoes, and other products by dropping their lappers on the goods while they are in the car. “This is for me,” they will say. It is legally understood among them that anyone who becomes the first to drop her lappers on the goods becomes the legal owner in term of buying it from the actual owner.
They make their living by reselling these products to the retailers on a commission basis.
A large number of informal marketers buy these raw products and add later value to them. They generate thousands of Liberian dollars daily to feed their children and send them to school.
As for the plantain, retailers add values to it in several ways. One; they produce either fufu, dumboy from it, or slice it to produce the popular plantain chips; secondly, they allow the product to get ripe before they fry it to produce chips-also known as plantain chips, and ‘killewayle.’Killiwayle is a popular food produced from red plantain. It is seasoned with pepper, spice, onion, and fried with Argo oil.
Some people also use plantain to prepare stew for their homes; while others cooked both the green and red plantains and chop them with their rice or fried fish, etc.
This is the extent at which plantain is very important in the daily economic lives of Liberians. But the market is facing daunting challenges as those involved in the chain of trading this commodity have begun to complain against price hikes.
Madam Williams, a well known plantain seller in the popular 'Gobarchop' Market Area in Paynesville, told our reporter last week that the price of this food item has raised. Madam Williams explained that due to the hikes in the wholesale price of plantain at LD$350.00 (US$5.00) or more per head, she is finding it difficult to sell. “We use to but it L$250 or L$300 and sell it for L$350, but at L$350, more people are not willing to buy for L$400,” she said.
She noted that she has to struggle daily to sell and recover her capital out of the perishable good. “It would get rotten if I don’t auction it for cheaper price and I will be the loser,” she said.
Madam Williams added “We take more risks in this business. In most instances we cannot get our money back because the goods get rotten and as it becomes uneatable, we end up throwing it in the garbage instead of receiving profit.”
“In addition,” Theresa said “as plantain gets ripe and reaching the point of perishing, fryers too come and get it from us on credit. But most of them don’t pay back”
This process known as 'sell-pay' in Liberia, Ms. Williams explained causes them to loss huge sums most of the times “as people can run away without paying us.”
The third party gets it to produce chips, one of the few ways of processing the commodity for consumption; the others being roasting and boiling.
When asked how long she has been in the business amidst the losses, Ms. Williams responded “more than five years.” “It is this business that I understands and knows how to go about doing it.”
“Through this business, I am able to pay my children's tuitions and feed them. Though I am not getting the desire profit to get other things done, it is what I'm able to do now to live,” she noted.
Kulubo Flomo for her part accused some plantain fryers of running away with her goods. “I have lost more than LD$12, 000,”she said.
According to Madam Flomo, there are many sellers of the commodity, and it requires one to be persistent and friendly to gain customers to buy.
“As you can see, there are more sellers of this commodity, and when kept in the heat for few times it either gets ripe or perishes. By my style of friendship I'm able to sell and in many instances get my money and profit,” she said.
She said though the constraint is associated with the business, she maneuvers to get what she can to support her children in school and has helped her to purchase a piece of land.
Views gathered from wholesalers of this commodity also suggest that they are heavily charged by commercial drivers.
According to them, bringing the goods from Nimba, Lofa, or Bong counties to Monrovia is costly as a result of bad road.
“The road from Ganta to Gbarnga is very bad now with too many pot holes that cause vehicles to breakdown most of the times,” she stated.
“Considering this condition couple with high price of petroleum products on the market,” the traders said “drivers charge them not less than LD$2,000 just for few heads of plantains.
Meanwhile, assessment on the plantain market indicates that the farmers are in strong readiness to produce more plantains. But they appeared worried that if nothing is done to curtail the hikes in fares and remove other changes, the number of buyers will dwindle. “We will not produce more if there are no buyers,” said a plantain farmer on condition of anonymity.
Our reporter also observed many sellers in the market with fewer buyers over the weekend.
Though many people here look up to rice as their staple, plantain is increasingly becoming a hotcake food basket in Liberia as it is in other African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria that consume plantain and yam as their staple foods.
Analysts here observed that due to industrialization there is a need for value addition on our locally produced food crops in order to preserve them for future consumption. “With this,” they believe “these food items will be preserved to enhance our food security and increase production as well as enhance export.”
